Ottawa:
Canada’s federal police are investigating a warning in videos circulating online not to fly with Air India starting Nov. 19, the transportation minister said Thursday. “We take any threat seriously, particularly when it affects airlines,” Transportation Minister Pablo Rodriguez told reporters in Ottawa.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, he added, “is conducting an investigation.”
The videos, posted online last week, feature Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the general counsel of the Khalistani group Sikhs for Justice.
He warns Sikhs in the video: “Do not fly Air India after November 19, your life could be in danger.”
He told Canadian media that this was not a threat but rather a call to boycott Indian companies. About 770,000 Sikhs live in Canada, making up about two percent of the total population.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made allegations in September that Indian agents were involved in the killing of a Canadian Sikh leader near Vancouver in June and expelled an Indian diplomat believed to be linked to the killing .
India dismissed the bombing allegation as “absurd”. Relations between India and Canada have faltered over the unsolved murder and India’s dissatisfaction with how Ottawa has handled Sikh separatists.